Ramsay was educated at the West End State School, Brisbane, Queensland and worked as an accountant and part-time journalist. With the assistance of Henry Boote (q.v.), an editor of the Worker; J. S. Collings, chairman of the Daily Standard board and a prominent Labor politician; and R. S. Ross, editor of the Queensland Sportsman and a socialist agitator, he became a fulltime journalist for the Labor movement. He contributed to the Sydney Bulletin, the Queensland Sportsman, the Worker and other magazines. He was leader writer for the Daily Standard, a Queensland daily Labor newspaper, for eight years and, later, on the editorial staff of the Queensland Worker until he retired in 1939.
